Comparison
How Reinstate sits next to native vendor sync, single-tool sync utilities, and DIY file sync.
Feature matrix
| Capability | Native vendor sync | claude-sync | coding-agent-sync / MCP tools | DIY (Syncthing / Drive) | Reinstate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sessions across devices | Per-vendor only | Claude only | Partial | Files only | Multi-agent |
| Works when other machine is off | Cloud yes / Remote Control no | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MCP / skills / settings | Vendor-local | Partial (Claude tree) | Often config-only | Manual | Universal config scope |
| E2E encryption | Vendor-held plaintext | age | Often yes | Usually no | age, BYO keys |
| Bring-your-own storage | No | R2/S3/GCS/WebDAV | Gists / various | Your sync tool | Object storage + WebDAV |
| Cross-OS path remapping | N/A | Partial | Weak | None | First-class |
| Delta / large history | N/A | Full-file gzip | Full-file | File-level | CAS + tail-append (target) |
| Team session sharing | Rare | No | Rare | Manual | Roadmap |
vs native vendor sync
Claude Code Remote Control / teleport and Codex account-linked surfaces are excellent inside one ecosystem. They will not:
- Resume your Claude sessions from a Codex machine state
- Sync MCP/skills across competing tools
- Keep ciphertext on storage you control
Reinstate’s moat is universality + neutrality + BYO encrypted storage.
vs claude-sync
claude-sync is a strong Claude-only reference (encryption, R2, path mapping). Reinstate aims to be a superset: multiple agents, config scope as a product feature, and path remapping generalized for Windows ↔ macOS as the default crossing — not an edge case.
vs config-only tools (mcp-sync, etc.)
Config sync alone has a low ceiling (nice utility, weak product). Reinstate treats sessions as the acquisition feature and config as retention.
vs Syncthing / iCloud / OneDrive
DIY works until:
- Absolute paths break resume
- Conflict files corrupt JSONL mid-write
- Credentials and plugin trees sync by accident
- You spend an afternoon on junctions and excludes
Reinstate is resume-aware, agent-aware, and secure-by-default.
Positioning one-liner
Vendor sync owns one agent. File sync owns bytes. Reinstate owns portable AI dev state — sessions + environment — across agents and machines.